"It's a plan for your future," said Skyline ninth-grader Nallely Lara, who's thinking about going into dentistry. "Finding what you want to do is like a puzzle. I'm social. I want conversations. It's very, very helpful to have a plan. I can start thinking about the money part of college."

At Timberline, ICAP counselor Louise March works with the eighth-grade language arts and social studies teachers and the STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — coordinator to help students create their plans.

The goal is for students, by the time they start high school, to have a career in mind and a path they need to follow to get there, including classes they need to take and activities they want to pursue.

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"To be happy, you have to get a job you want to go to and go to college for it," said Timberline eighth-grader Yasmin Gutierrez, who's interested in becoming a police detective. "High school is the beginning of your path. You might as well be prepared before you start ninth grade."

Students start by taking personality and interest surveys to discover potential matching careers. Next, they learn about the classes and specialized programs they'll need in high school and postsecondary education, as well as about budgeting for college, scholarships and financial aid.

With the help of the language arts and social studies teachers, students then create a plan of study and write college essays. They also use the STEM design process to solve a problem that relates to their career of interest with the help of a local professional working in that career.

Students said having a plan pushes them to take school seriously.

Fatima Medina, a freshman at Skyline, said she had a low GPA and wasn't getting along with three of her teachers when she started eighth grade.

But as she worked on her plan, deciding she wants to become an anesthesiologist, she realized that she needed better grades so she could get into the STEM program in high school.

Now, she has all A's and recently wrote a college application as practice.

"It's really helpful," she said. "It didn't seem like extra work. I was happy to do it."

Added Cuauhtemoc Sanchez, an eighth grader at Timberline, "I had to set goals for what I want to become. I had to get good grades."

He's interested in computer programming and is applying to Skyline's new P-TECH program. P-TECH schools combine high school and two years of community college, with students graduating with a no-cost associate degree.

Andy Tucker, Boulder Valley's director of student support, said he's a big supporter of the plans. The plan, he said, are a way to individualize education.

"It can be incredibly powerful for kids," he said. "We should use it to guide what we do. Our job is to prepare kids for the rest of their lives. We want it to be more systemic than it is now."

He pointed to Lafayette's Centaurus High School as an example of a school that's integrated the plans into its classes.

At Centaurus, Principal Rhonda Haniford said, the plans are part of the school's advisory program, which includes a focus on career and college planning. Students stay with their same advisory class all four years.

"We do a lot of exploratory learning," Haniford said. They're thinking about their next steps and how they're going to get there. When students can design it themselves, they have a lot of ownership."

After putting together an initial plan freshman year, they refine their plan as sophomores and then begin focusing on college and apprenticeships their junior and senior years, she said.

"We want to let them know how they can be successful after high school," she said. "It's part of building a strong college-going culture."

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